perfect example of a "7/10 game"

a game of memorable highs, uninteresting lows, but ultimately a lot of forgettable middles. this game feels a lot like someone's first game and the fact that it is shows. it's about 10 hours too long (it took me about 20 hours to beat with avoiding a lot of the random encounters, not doing much side-content), the stuff happening in the dreamworld doesn't really have any bearing on the story 95% of the time, and most of the characters feel very ignorable, superfluous, and slightly annoying due to their constant presence.

that being said, the game is VERY ambitious in its scope, which i appreciate. it feels like a few interesting ideas and discussions that are weighted down by the game's need to feel "gamey" and long due to typical RPG bloat. can't wait until people fully abandon the RPG genre as the de-facto means to tell a story in a narrative game!

a masterpiece of playful design coupled with well thought-out and executed narrative

there's a few instances of Pixel Hunting and slight "guess what the developer is thinking" that can be frustrating by modern standards, but being persistent pays off in incredible ways. it makes sense that several developers, namely Kojima, have said that this is the game that inspired them to make games, because it lays the groundwork for their types of "deadly serious in-world, yet goofy" tones. one of the best endings to a game ever.

a game of tension, tension, tension, and release

in Dark Souls, the tension builds from the players exploring the world, scared to make a misstep because of the fear of losing all that they've just worked to gather to become stronger. as the game goes on, the player becomes a little more fearless. you can just run past everything to the bonfire. you don't care about dying as much because you know you can reclaim your souls. even bosses become relaxing once you've memorized every possible pattern. it's like playing a song you know by heart.

so much of sekiro is an inversion of this. in the overworld, now YOU are the beast that descends from unseen places and one-shots your enemy. you have unlimited stamina to outrun any foe, you have a grappling hook that allows you to reach places that others can't, you have a huge toolbox to get through every encounter. stalking your prey doesn't ratchet up the tension, it's all in the clashing of swords.

with Dark Souls, if you got hit, it was a fundamental mistake: you shouldn't have been standing there, you should have rolled, you should have known better. with Bloodborne it evolved: it's okay to get hit now and again because you can just get it right back if you're aggressive enough. but in Sekiro it reaches it's peak: YES, you WANT to get hit, but you just have to make sure you're getting hit the best that you can.

often times, the fastest, safest, and, sometimes, only way to victory is to stay on your opponent, give them no breathing room, get hit and deflect perfectly, capitalize on openings. coming from being a Bloodborne-first (and obsessed) player, i struggled a lot with staying so close. at first it is terrifying to just sit and wait to get hit, throttling the shoulder button out-of-sync to try and desperately avoid what's coming at you. as time goes on, you feel the familiar boss rhythms like other FromSoft games. you lock into the groove of your opponent. the tension is still there, it just shifts to become anticipation.

the game has some of my favorite moments in all of the post-DS FromSoft. it's playful and macabre all at the same time. also, if you just go for Vitality kills most of the time because you're a bimbo like me, YOU ARE VALID

this is the sequel that Dark Souls players deserved in 2014.

i have a lot of issues with this game: the lack of verticality in its level design as compared to DS1, its reuse of early bosses constantly throughout the game that don't offer anything new or interesting, the tying of invicibility frames and estus drinking speed to a stat, its abundance of bosses that are either "Capra Demon But Different" or "Hey Y'all.... Remember This? ;)"

however, the worst offense is the game's cruelty in its encounter design. in Dark Souls 1, the little tricks and traps in the environment feel like a parent warning you not to touch a hot pan but you do it anyways. maybe you didn't know, maybe you should have known better but you still did it. in contrast, Dark Souls 2 feels like a parent going on an hour-long tirade about how all you kids ever want is pizza for dinner. DS1 feels whimsical and playful, DS2 feels like the game is rubbing your nose in the carpet to show you what happens when you get what you want.

i wouldn't mind this as much if the game's meta-commentary surrounding the nature of its gameplay and cyclical death wasn't so.... forgettable? it feels like it's gesturing toward a thoughtful discussion surrounding fan expectation, demand for sequels, fear of change, and games being "miserable on purpose," but it doesn't have much to say about it. by comparison, Pathologic 2, a game that is VERY much miserable on purpose, feels intentional in its slow, macabre, sadcore plot, because it's trying to fully disempower the player (and not just make them powerful later like DS2) to make them understand that if they were in a similar situation, they WOULD probably die and not be a special hero.

that being said, the game is still very good. it's my least favorite of the post-Dark Souls FromSoft output, but if this game was reskinned as a Zelda game and put out by Nintendo, it would be in my top 5 zelda games. it's only through comparison to other series entries that this game looks as bad as it does.